by Isaac Hooke
“Not as hot as you,” Bender said.
They proceeded forward at a run, passing several shimmering bulkhead sections. Surus finally stopped in front of one of them, and extended a testing hand, but her glove would not penetrate.
“Bright One missed this one, too, it seems,” she said.
“The bright bastard has missed a lot of them, hasn’t he?” Bender said.
Surus held up her hand to a solid portion of the bulkhead and allowed the green liquid of her alien form to seep into a hidden panel.
A moment later the glowing droplets reemerged and were absorbed into her glove.
“I’m through,” Surus said.
“That was quick,” Rade said.
“Yes,” Surus replied. “Bright One helped me this time.”
Beyond, the engineering section was a long, narrow compartment filled with several smaller quadrilateral structures limned with blue lights. These structures protruded from the deck and overhead at overlapping angles, slightly offset from one another, so that when Rade gazed into the room, he was reminded almost of a sideways jaw fitted with blunt teeth.
Surus wended between the blunt structures, making her way to the center of the room. She appeared to be counting the structures, and stopped when she reached the number she was looking for.
She extended her glove toward the blunt quadrilateral that descended from the overhead there, and when she touched it, her green essence flowed into the object.
Rade watched the countdown on his overhead display reach zero. “Come on, Surus, where are you?”
Rade waited several more seconds. A minute. Finally green condensation appeared on the surface and flowed into Ms. Bounty’s glove.
“It’s done,” Surus said. “I have disengaged the safeties.”
“You were a minute late,” Rade said.
“While I was inside, I conferred with Bright One via the nexus,” Surus said. “He has already countered the effects of the momentary deceleration. The Elder ship will collide with the same energy as the asteroid in precisely one hour, the same time as the original was scheduled to arrive. Our original timeline will revert.”
“That’s great, but we only have half an hour to reach the recall site,” Rade said. “You said you could take us to those lifepods? How far are they from the engine section?”
“Not far,” Surus said. “If we wait by the earlier membrane for the Hoplites, we should be able to reach it in five minutes.”
“Now we just have to hope the Hoplites arrive in a timely manner,” Bender said.
“We might have to go look for them,” Rade said.
They returned to the gray-green metal passageway and retreated to the shimmering membrane that led to the swamp environment. They waited just outside.
Rade glanced at his overhead map but the Hoplites still weren’t in range, and hadn’t moved from their original positions.
“I’m going in,” Rade said. “The signal will be slightly weaker here because of the membrane.”
“No,” Surus said. “It should be me. I can keep you updated.”
She vanished from view as she activated her emitter and was replaced by the blue outline.
“All right, go ahead,” Rade told her.
She stepped through the shimmering bulkhead.
“Do you read?” Rade asked. He could still see her indicator on the overhead map, as shown on the other side of the airlock.
“I’m here,” her distorted voice said. “Their locations haven’t updated yet.”
Rade glanced at the timer as the seconds ticked down. They had twenty-five minutes left until the recall took place.
Rade kept his laser rifle aimed down the alien passageway, while Bender watched the membrane behind them.
“You know,” Bender said over a private channel. “Between you and me, I’m fine if we don’t make it and have to live out the rest of our days in Dino Land.”
“Those days won’t be very long,” Rade said. “Assuming we actually get out of here. If we make it to the Acceptor site but miss the actual recall, well, I’m fairly sure we won’t be far enough away to survive, even if we’re three thousand kilometers distant, as Zhidao hinted. Like Bright One told us earlier, debris from the impact will be superheated to incandescence when it falls back down, literally broiling the surface below. The tectonic shockwaves from the impact will also trigger massive earthquakes. And we’ll have a megatsunami to deal with. None of that will be very fun.”
“Maybe I can convince Surus to give me a quick one before impact?” Bender said hopefully.
“Probably not,” Rade said.
“Well if we don’t make it in time,” Bender said, “we can look for a cave or something to hide in.”
“Sure,” Rade said.
“Either way it doesn’t matter,” Bender said, “Because I guess what I’m trying to say is: even if we don’t make it, I’m glad we saved humanity. The cost was worth it, to me. More than worth it. What’s my life compared to the lives of billions? Even if we had to trade the lives of an equal number of dinosaurs to save humanity.”
“I’m glad, too,” Rade said. “Though we came within a hair of losing.”
“A red cunt hair?” Bender said.
“Of course,” Rade told him.
“I admit to being a little disappointed I couldn’t try out some T-Rex meat,” Bender said. “I was hoping to cut myself a slab and sell it online when we got back.” He let his voice move into his high pitched Mr. Quiggles persona that always solicited giggles from the twins. “‘And you thought chicken chips were good? Wait till you try T-Rex chips boys and girls!’ Finest delicacy around. They’re Mr. Quiggles approved!”
“You really miss the twins, don’t you?” Rade said.
“You got me,” Bender said.
“Maybe you should settle down,” Rade said. “Find a good woman.”
“Ha? Me?” Bender said. “You got the wrong guy. Sure, I’ve met a few good women, and they’ve almost converted me from bachelorhood. Almost. In fact, if Surus would ever let me in, I’d probably choose her. And on the plus side, I’d never have to worry about her not taking her contraceptive meds. But as for having kids of my own? Why bother when I got yours? You handle all the crappy parts that come with having kids, the whining when they don’t get what they want, the worrying when they get sick or hurt, and so on, while I get to have them for all the good parts: teaching them how to fight. Telling them crude jokes. And generally corrupting them.”
Rade was staring at the overhead map as Bender spoke, so that when the blue dots of the Hoplites reappeared, he noticed immediately. Unfortunately, several red dots also materialized in pursuit.
“You might get to cut away your slab of T-Rex meat yet,” Rade said.
“The Argonauts have arrived,” Surus announced over the comm. “They’re coming in hot, as suspected.”
“We see them,” Rade said. “Mark off the location of the lifepods, if you don’t mind?”
A new waypoint appeared on his map, a short ways past engineering behind him. Since he hadn’t explored that area yet, the map depicted the surrounding region in black.
Rade confirmed that there were no red dots near Surus, which meant it was clear inside—her Implant would have marked any nearby tangos she spotted.
Rade glanced at Bender. “Let’s get inside.”
He traversed the membrane and aimed his rifle into the rainforest beyond. Bender joined him. They stood beside the outline of Surus, who had similarly assumed a defensive stance.
He scanned the distant trees through his scope, and heard the Hoplites before he spotted them: the sound of big objects crashing through the undergrowth. And then he caught a glimpse of metal, and finally the welcome sight of a Hoplite war machine plowing through the branches.
Rade counted all the Hoplites and confirmed that the expected Argonauts were in the passenger seats, their holographic emitters still active. A glance at the status indicators of his HUD told him the health of the
team members were all in the green. Several of the mechs had taken damage, however: there were dented cockpits and limp arms throughout the unit. Fret’s mech was missing its shield arm entirely. Tahoe’s walked with an obvious limp.
Even so, they were definitely a sight for sore eyes.
twenty-two
Welcome back, Argonauts,” Rade sent.
“It’s good to be here,” Tahoe said. “Though I can’t say the journey has been pleasant.”
“Yeah well, you’re not a moment too soon.” Rade glanced at the countdown. Twenty minutes left. “We’ve shut down the safeties. The Elder mothership will impact on schedule.”
“Glad to hear that all of this wasn’t for nothing,” Lui said.
A distant rumbling rose in volume, slowly consuming the crashing sounds made by the Hoplites. It was as if a herd of a ten thousand oxen pursued. Or five hundred T-Rexes.
Rade could see the forerunners then. Different species of T-Rexes plowed across the trail created by the Hoplites, racing after the mechs in outrage. Occasionally one of them was hit in the eye when an Argonaut fired from a passenger seat; sometimes the victim dropped out of the pursuit, but more often than not it continued running forward in a blind rage—literally, for those that had lost both eyes. Sometimes the fully blind T-Rexes plowed headfirst into a tree and knocked themselves unconscious. The others from the herd merely leaped over or trampled them.
“Why would they pursue all the way through the rainforest?” Bender said.
“Dunno,” Rade said. “My guess is wild game must be becoming fairly thin on the ground. After the compartments mixed, they would have had one big hunt. And after that, slim pickings.”
“Yeah but they should be nowhere near starving at this point,” Bender said. “That mixing wouldn’t have happened too long ago.”
“Then maybe instincts are driving them,” Rade said. “Maybe they’ll chase anything that runs.”
“Like lions in Africa?” Bender said.
“Exactly like that,” Rade said.
“Go and bring up your mother country, huh, Bender?” Manic said over the comm.
“Dude, I’ve only been to Africa once,” Bender said. “But come here and I’ll let you experience my mother country first hand.”
Rade scooped up his PASS device and reattached it to his utility belt—that was one less futuristic item with the potential to be rediscovered by archeologists sixty-five million years from now. Then again, why was he worried about a small thing like a PASS when there was an entire starship filled with alien technology about to impact? He just had to hope the Elder salvage ship did as thorough a cleanup job as Bright One promised.
“Let’s go!” Rade dove through the membrane when the team arrived. The Hoplites were able to fit two-by-two in the gray-green passageway. Rade quickly jetted up into the unoccupied passenger seat of Electron and resumed his place, strapping himself in. Bender and Surus clambered into the passenger seats of their own mechs.
“Welcome back, boss,” Electron said.
“Did you miss me in the long time we were parted?” Rade asked.
“Of course,” Electron replied. “Like a nail misses a hammer.”
“That little, huh?” Rade gazed down his laser rifle and aimed past the Hoplites that succeeded his own.
“The membrane is going to stop these tyrant lizards from pursuing us, right?” Fret said from the drag position.
“Nope,” Rade said. “But most of them won’t fit in here.”
He had his scope aimed at the shimmering wall beyond Fret’s mech, and was the first to spot a T-Rex as it emerged. This was a smaller carnosaur and it readily squeezed into the passageway.
“I thought you said they wouldn’t fit!” Fret said.
“I said most of them,” Rade retorted.
The T-Rex already had one eye closed and exuding plasma. Rade aimed at the opposite eye and fired. It must have been a lucky shot, because the T-Rex immediately toppled dead to the deck. Either that, or the creature was small enough for the second laser beam to cause enough damage to incapacitate it.
More carnosaurs emerged. These ones were larger, and they struggled to fit the relatively tight passageway, long legs folded up against their bodies. When the foremost reached the body of the fallen T-Rex, it was unable to squeeze past. The one just behind was shoving against it, slowly forcing the pinned T-Rex and the corpse forward.
Fret blinded the living T-Rex. The trapped dinosaur howled in agony, but otherwise remained pinned. It slowly slid forward as apparently more T-Rexes combined their efforts to push from behind, but moved too slowly to be of any consequence.
That T-Rex began to hack horribly, and then its head dropped. It stopped moving forward as the dinosaurs concealed behind it obviously suffered the same fate.
“Guess they forgot to check whether the air was breathable!” Bender said. “Ha! Morons. They’re not so smart after all, huh Lui?”
“Smarter than you,” Manic said.
“I wasn’t even talking to you!” Bender said. “Boss, I’ll be right back. I want to carve a piece of meat from that T-Rex for my—”
“No time,” Rade said. “Argonauts, stow your emitters and load into your cockpits!”
Rade swung down from the passenger seat, removed his holographic emitter, and threw it into the storage compartment—the added bulk would interfere with the operation of the internal actuators in the cockpit. The device was shorted out anyway.
He leaped into the open hatch of the cockpit and the inner cocoon enveloped him, allowing him to resume control.
“Nice to have you behind the wheel once again,” Electron said.
“Is it?” Rade said. “I thought you’d be a little disappointed about giving up the reins, control freak that you are. Especially given the earlier hammer and nail comment.”
“Only a little,” Electron said.
The team grew closer to the evacuation area Surus had marked on the map.
A high-pitched klaxon began to sound repeatedly in the background. If this were the Argonaut, Rade had no doubt what Bax would be saying right now: “Warning. Planetary impact imminent. Warning. Please proceed to the nearest lifepod.”
A large Utahraptor burst from a small membrane on the left side of the passage and leaped onto the torso of the lead mech. Lui shrugged off the feathered creature and trampled its head underfoot. Gray matter splattered the wall.
“You bird brain!” Bender commented.
The team reached the digitally marked membrane, and the cockpit on Surus’ mech swung open so that she could hack the unit. But Lui walked right through the shimmering bulkhead before she could get to work.
“Looks like Bright One came through for us,” Rade sent.
“Indeed.” Surus retreated into her cockpit.
Rade entered the membrane and found himself in a corridor that barely fit his mech. Long bars of blue light spanned the overhead. Alcoves opened off on either side, and within Rade could see claustrophobic pods. Bright One had mentioned that various types of lifepods were available, some of which were capable of holding their mechs, some not. Apparently, these particular pods belonged to the latter group, because the Hoplites were too big to enter any of them.
So much for not leaving any of our tech behind in the past.
Again he scolded himself for even worrying about it.
“The hell!” Fret said. “That alien tricked us! These pods aren’t big enough to hold our Hoplites!”
“He never said the lifepods near engineering would fit them,” Surus said. “We’ll just have to make do.”
“Abandon your mechs,” Rade said. “And collect the AI cores. That’s all we can do.”
“See you on the other side,” Electron told Rade.
“You can count on it,” Rade replied.
The hatch fell open and Rade hurried outside. He knelt, wrapping his fingers around the handle of the AI core as Electron shut down, and then he twisted it to the left and carefully withdrew the long
cylinder that contained the neural network of the AI. He secured it to his harness with the free straps, and then leaped down to the deck.
“Bring your holographic emitters,” Rade said. “If they’re still working.”
The team members grabbed the holographic emitters from the compartments and attached them, since their jumpsuits would still fit in the pods with the slightly added bulk.
Rade left his emitter in the mech, since the device wasn’t working, and stared into the nearest alcove.
“Is there anything special we need to do to launch these?” Rade asked Surus.
“No,” Surus replied. “Once you’re inside, the lifepod should automatically launch, heading to the preprogrammed coordinates. When it lands, the door will open on its own.”
“Good,” Rade said. “Argonauts, evac!”
He waited for the others to enter their pods. As the klaxon continued to sound, one by one the team members entered, and double doors sealed them into the pods—inner and outer hatches. Through the translucent portals of those outer hatches, Rade watched as the small vehicles jettisoned in turn. The Elder could have used their membrane tech here to prevent the compartment from depressurizing, but it was probably safer to employ an actual physical hatch. Then again, with their selective membrane tech, maybe it didn’t matter. He couldn’t say why the alien designers did what they did.
Everyone evacuated except for Tahoe and Bender, who remained standing near the far side of the compartment.
“What are you waiting for?” Rade said.
“For you,” Tahoe said.
Rade shook his head, then dove into the pod he had selected for himself.
The double door sealed behind him. He stared through the portal and into the passageway. A moment later a Utahraptor came into view, passing through the compartment’s entrance membrane. It appeared to be struggling for air, and smashed against the glass portal of Rade’s outer hatch, causing cracks to appear.
And then Rade was sent reeling away from the ship as his pod jettisoned. Through his local window, Rade watched as the stranded Utahraptor continued to pound against the receding glass until it became too small to discern against the backdrop of the mothership.
